MWC 2017

This morning we're having a peek at the dummy version of the Samsung Galaxy S9, a device which will be revealed in full soon. The big event for this smartphone is scheduled for February 25th, like someone predicted, and will take place in Barcelona, Spain, just before MWC 2018. That's Mobile World Congress, the same place Samsung revealed several of its other most major mobile products in the past.

The parts that'll make the Samsung Galaxy S9 were named by a number of South Korean sources this afternoon. It would appear that January production of both the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus are both on schedule, even as several pieces of this smartphone puzzle have relatively major changes VS the Galaxy S8. One of these is a brand new circuit board manufacturing process, combining high performance capacity and a smaller substrate than before.

Android smartphones may have dominated the MWC 2017 show but there was at least one non-Android handset that was catching the crowd’s attention. That is none other than a still unannounced new Elite x3, which could even be an Elite x4, still the highest end Windows 10 Mobile phone you can get your mitts on. Although HP didn’t allow anyone to touch the smartphone from its rotating pedestal, just a cursory look at the Elite x3 and its companion Lap Dock was enough to fuel speculation of a refresh coming soon.

As the dust of MWC 2017 settles, we take stock of all the announcements, teasers, and devices that rained down in Barcelona. We definitely have enough interesting smartphones, high-end or otherwise, that makes Samsung’s relative absence almost negligible. LG’s return to essentials with the G6, Sony’s hybrid of two generations of flagships with the Xperia XZ Premium, and Huawei’s unyielding commitment to Leica lenses with the P10 Plus.

Of course, the question always boils down to “which is the best smartphone of 2017”. And, of course, the answer is never straightforward. While we wait to spend more quality time with each of these three, we take a quick recap of what make each one your best smartphone of 2017.

As promised, Xiaomi unveiled at MWC 2017 its first in-house application processor or SoC, the Surge S1, along side the first smartphone to be powered by it, the Xiaomi Mi 5c. It will probably be a while before we see it in action in the real world, but, for now, we have to take Xiaomi at its word. Amusingly, it has also announced the Redmi 4X that is powered by a different processor that Xiaomi is painting to be inferior to its Surge S1.

With smartphones these days that are slowly but surely turning away from removable batteries, the battery problem can only be solved in two ways: either with a bigger battery or faster charging times. Since bigger batteries usually mean bigger phones, most manufacturers and users might prefer the latter solution. But even the fastest charging tech takes more than an hour to go from drained to full charged. Unless they adopt Meizu's Super mCharge, which promises to fully charge a battery in the time you can finish a cup of coffee. Leisurely, of course.

The second Huawei Watch (or Huawei Watch 2, as it's called), appeared this week at Mobile World Congress 2017. We had the opportunity to get up close and personal with several versions of the watch - colors and buttons and all - to see what the company has in mind for the second big wave of Android Wear watch hardware this year. Can Huawei pair what they call "Classic Watch Styles" with smartwatch abilities successfully?

Mobile World Congress 2017 is drawing to a close, and whether you're in the market for a new smartphone, tablet, laptop, or something else, there's plenty to choose from. This year's mobile gadgetry has spanned everything from retro revivals from names-of-yore like Nokia and BlackBerry, through to big bets on new technology from LG and Qualcomm. Read on for our picks of the very best of MWC 2017.

When ZTE sub-brand nubia released the nubia N1 last year, it barely made a peep. With the less capable but supposedly more affordable nubia N1 lite, however, it is devoting some MWC 2017 space for it. Which is even more ironic considering the N1 lite is truly a “lite” version of the N1, though nubia promises that it has just enough features to be worth its cost.

Porsche Design may not be the first company you'd think of to make a Microsoft Surface Book competitor, but the Porsche Design BOOK ONE is no simple 2-in-1. Revealed at Mobile World Congress 2017 today, the BOOK ONE promises the sort of high-style, high-performance computing that someone with a Porsche 911 key on their keychain might want. That means Windows 10, 7th generation Intel Core i7 processors, and a very mechanically-interesting hinge.

ASUS launched the ZenFone AR back at CES in January, but the Project Tango phone wasn't quite ready for its augmented reality close-up. Turns out, there are some ZenFone AR handsets floating around at MWC 2017 this week, not least being used by the team at BMW and Accenture for their iVisualizer demo. Imagine our surprise when the ASUS handset was whipped out - alongside the existing Lenovo Phab 2 Pro - for us to check out on video.

One of the cheapest, most basic phones at Mobile World Congress this year has probably got more attention than all the smartphone flagships combined. The Nokia 3310 isn't trying to squeeze the LG G6 from your hand, and its physical keys aren't going to give the BlackBerry KeyOne any sleepless nights, but it possesses a retro charm that has the Nokia booth here in Barcelona buzzing. Turns out, there's a good reason for that.